Sports

SUNDAY will be a particularly special day for Miltown, St Joseph’s GAA chairman, Gerry Curtin. He will travel to Cusack Park with the club’s senior team for their Clare football final date with Cooraclare. Understandably, he wants to see his beloved club emerge victorious, a result that will see him “hand over the baton of captain of the last team to bring the title to Miltown.” Twenty-five years ago, Miltown last won the blue riband of Clare football, beating Kilmihil in a final played at Cusack Park. “The final score on that occasion was 1-6 to 0-7 and Sean Burke’s goal proved decisive,” he said. Recalling that success, the Miltown chairman said, “We had won the title in 1985 and the guts of that team were still there. A lot of us were coming to the end of the road. It was a tough struggle and Kilmihil had us on the rack in the first half and again in the …

Waterford and Limerick will provide the opposition for Clare in the opening rounds of the 2016 Munster senior hurling and football championships. The hurlers of Clare and Waterford will meet in a Provincial semi-final game while the football clash of Shannonside neighbours Clare and Limerick will be a quarter final tie with the prize for the winners a Provincial semi-final date with the defending Munster champions Kerry. The winners of the Clare v Waterford hurling game will be through to the provincial final and also in the the All-Ireland quarter finals. Dates and venues for the games will be set at a meeting of the Munster council in the coming weeks but as the footballers had home advantage last year when they played Limerick, this year’s meeting will be at a Limerick venue. Should Clare win this game they will also be away to Kerry as the last time these sides met, it was played in Cusack Park. The opening …

American billionaire Donald Trump has taken a €2.5 million hit in his first year of ownership of the Doonbeg golf resort, accounts filed to the Companies Office has revealed. TIGL Ireland Enterprises Limited, which operates Trump International Golf Links and Hotel in the West Clare village, recorded post-tax losses of €2,549,801 in its first year since the business tycoon acquired the resort. In the company’s financial statements, its directors note that the substantial losses were due to the write-off of various start-up costs incurred as part of the acquisition of the business. The golf resort was bought by Mr Trump last year for around €8.7m. It was subsequently valued at €23m by the businessman in financial disclosures filed this year with the Federal Election Commission in the US, as part of his campaign to secure the Republican nomination for the presidential election. The golf course is currently being redesigned and will not be fully operational until 2016. This is likely …

PODGE Collins is on his way back to the Clare senior hurling panel for 2016, but he will also remain with the county footballers. Manager, Davy Fitzgerald has refused to confirm or deny that the Cratloe man, who is currently recovering from a cruciate knee ligament injury, is about to rejoin the hurling panel but The Clare Champion has learned this is the position. “No comment” was the manager’s response, when asked about this and about speculation as to who has been let go from the panel, which is expected to begin training next month. Collins, one of the stars of the 2013 All-Ireland success, after which he was honoured as an All-Star and was shortlisted for the Hurler Of The Year award, was omitted from the hurling panel last year, after the management opted not to include any dual players. The return of Collins to the hurling panel, while still being available to the senior football side – which …

Football takes centre stage in Clare this weekend, as Cooraclare and Miltown St Joseph’s prepare to battle it out for the Jack Daly Cup, and the honour of being crowned senior football champions for 2015, at Cusack Park, Ennis on Sunday. To mark the occasion, The Clare Champion has published a 16-page supplement, Reaching for the Stars. Sports editor, Seamus Hayes and football correspondent, Peter O’Connell have interviews with players and well-know club figures on both sides, as well as opinion pieces and the match preview. It’s an all West Clare affair between two teams from traditional football strongholds that have not featured on the senior champions’ roll of honour for some time. Both clubs have enjoyed success at underage and other grades this year, however, which augurs well for their futures. Miltown’s 1990 Clare championship winning team will be honoured at half-time during the final at Cusack Park. A number of players have sons bidding to follow in their footsteps …

Sixmilebridge 1-21 Clonlara 0-15 A haul of 0-13 from Niall Gilligan played a key role in Sixmilebridge winning back the Canon Hamilton trophy after a lapse of one year, as they overcame Clonlara in the Clare senior hurling championship final at sunsplashed Cusack Park on Sunday afternoon. [doptg id=”82″] The Sixmilebridge veteran, who won the first of his five Clare senior championships 20 years ago in 1995, was presented with the man of the match award at the end of a game his side won convincingly While Sixmilebridge carried the favourites tag into this game, much was expected of Clonlara but their fans went home disappointed at the end of a contest in which Clare All-Ireland winning heroes from 2013, Colm Galvin, Darach Honan and Domhnaill O’Donovan failed to make an impression and this was a big talking point after the game. Disappointed with the result, Clonlara manager Sean Stack accepted thst there was no argument about the outcome. “They were …

Bonfires blazed across the parishes of Shannon and Coolmeen-Cranny on Saturday evening after Wolfe Tones and Coolmeen were crowned intermediate hurling and junior A football champions repectively. Goals proved decisive and Wolfe Tones won back senior status after a year in the lower division when they defeated Broadford at O’Garney Park in Sixmilebridge. Two goals in each half proved too much for Broadford who, despite scoring seventeen points, were five adrift when the final whistle sounded. The winners got off to a dream start with a Kevin McCafferty goal as early as the fourth minute. Broadford rallied and drew level by the thirteenth minute and they will be disappointed that they weren’t ahead at this point but poor shooting proved costly. Ahead by a point after twenty minutes the winners struck again and Jack Cunningham found the net, a score that helped them to a half time lead on the score of 2-4 to 0-7. The winners made the better …

Rita Kierce understands the financial difficulties associated with cancer having been diagnosed with mouth cancer 25 years ago and since then she has had to deal with a multitude of expensive medical bills on an annual basis. Rita has undergone extensive medical treatment since 1989, which included comprehensive dental work. Ahead of the budget the Kilnaboy woman said she believes the government should do more to help families who are struggling financially. New figures from the Irish Cancer Society confirmed in recent days that the average spend per month for cancer patients with a medical card or private health insurance was €862, while those who cannot work, work less or lose income as a result of having cancer face an income drop averaging €1,400 a month or €16,750 per year. Speaking to The Clare Champion Rita, who is an accomplished runner and previously represented the Irish cross-country team, said as a result of her treatment, she is still undergoing an …